Featured Domains

GoDaddy Looks to Social Networking for Growth

Domain registrar and web hosting company files patents for aggregating social network sites.

The world’s biggest domain registrar, GoDaddy, may be looking to social networking to grow its business.

The company filed three patents this year, published last month, that describe a web portal that aggregates a person’s social networks. For example, you may register your name as a domain name at GoDaddy, and GoDaddy’s product would generate a web portal that has links to all of your social networking pages (e.g. MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn). Public profiles from social networks may be part of the domain as well, rather than simply sending visitors to the social networks themselves.

The patent filings suggest this data could be aggregated onto the portal using common login systems such as OpenID.

With competition for domain registration and hosting escalating, this solution could differentiate GoDaddy and drive growth from people who typically don’t register domain names. Many social network users are casual internet users who haven’t thought of registering a domain name. But a service for aggregating their social networks may be enough to get them to register a domain at GoDaddy (or even pay for the service).

GoDaddy files more patents than any other domain registrar. As these patents are approved, the company becomes an even stronger takeover candidate.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. They’re idiots when it comes to software patents, which is why patent trolls like GoDaddy can get away with their slimy tactics.

Not to mention, it doesn’t pass the standards of non-obviousness. The only thing even added to the existing offerings in that market is that GoDaddy will let you pay them for it. How long until they’re facing competition from free services that do a better job. Like, for example FriendFeed (which, incidentally, already exists.)

Why would GoDaddy be a good acquisition? They have patents, but very little actual value.